250 WITH MR. CHAMBERLAIN IN THE 



gaunt and cold at other times — It presented un- 

 questionably the most brilUant spectacle it has ever 

 had occasion to afford. Apart from that greatest of 

 embellishments which a great building receives 

 from an animated and fashionable throng, its every- 

 day aspect was so skilfully and lavishly disguised by 

 adornments of another kind that it looked veritably 

 beautiful. We ought at once to say that the super- 

 vision of this matter of decoration had been in the 

 hands of Mr. C. E. Mathews, who commanded the 

 resources of Messrs. Marris & Norton, of Birming- 

 ham, and of Messrs. Hewitt & Co., of Solihull. 

 The floor of the hall had the semblance of a great 

 drawing-room. Its walls were brightened with 

 mirrors and sideboards, and draped with a blue 

 fabric and Oriental curtains ; and it was furnished 

 not only, as is customary on such occasions, beneath 

 the great gallery, but over the whole floor-space, 

 large and numerous rugs softening the footfall. 

 Beneath the orchestra there was a continuous line of 

 mirrors, so placed as to give to the reflection an 

 effect almost kaleidoscopic, but prevented from 

 bewildering the glance, because they were recessed 

 between ivied pillars of virgin cork, graced by a 

 growth of some of the more freely-spreading orchids. 

 In the corners below and above, and across the 

 whole front of the orchestra, so closely placed as to 

 conceal from sight the formal woodwork, there was 

 a charming arrangement of palms and poinsettias, of 

 the pretty hanging grass isolepsis, and of cyclamens, 

 marguerites, euphorbias, lilies of the valley, and 

 ericas. Some choice orchids set off the narrow 



